SALEM — Two school nurses who were laid off last year have been rehired, thanks to new funding and a late-summer resignation.
Salem High School nurse Ruthann Hatt’s position was restored, and former Saltonstall School nurse Lisa Duffy has been rehired to fill a vacancy caused by a resignation at Horace Mann Laboratory School.
The position of nurse leader, cut because of budget problems, will not be restored, however. Instead, the former nurse leader, Mary Egan, will be the school nurse at Saltonstall and will also serve as the “nurse coordinator,” a newly created job that carries a $6,000 stipend.
“It’s really a lot to ask of one person,” School Committee member Kevin Carr said.
Egan will still be responsible for coordinating all the school nurses, substitutes, medical supervision on school field trips, meetings, professional development training, keeping the health offices stocked with supplies and medicine, and filing monthly reports to the state on all the nurses’ activities, according to Superintendent William Cameron.
The two nursing jobs that were eliminated last spring had been covered by a state grant Salem had received since 1993, but lost for this school year. Mayor Kim Driscoll said this week that the city needs to push for that grant money to be restored.
“It’s critical,” she said.
Currently, each Salem school has one nurse, except Salem High School, which has two. Egan has said the school nurses treat between 75 and 125 students per day at Salem High and 35 to 50 children daily at the elementary schools.
In addition to approving Egan’s new position this week, the School Committee signed its yearly contract with Dr. Owen Mathieu, a Salem pediatrician who has been the school physician for a decade. He attends monthly meetings with the nurses and is also on call for consultation, according to Cameron.
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